Downtown appoints David Alexander as head of new global department

The department was established to centralise Downtown’s global new markets strategy as part of its ongoing work to realign its operations. Heli Del Moral, who previously led CD Baby’s international business, was named vice-president of the division.

Alexander and his team will lead the company’s new market expansion strategy and operations, reporting to Downtown executive vice-president of global business development Andrew Sparkler. Downtown acquired the South Africa-based Sheer Music Africa last year, which formally expanded the company’s geographic footprint to the African continent. Alexander will continue to manage Sheer in addition to his new role until a successor is found.

“This new role means that I will be responsible for crafting a strategy for the entry of the Downtown suite of services into new markets, and for the growth of our current service offerings in markets that have potential to service a broader spectrum of creators and copyright owners,” Alexander told Music In Africa. “This promotion indicates a firm belief from the Downtown leadership team that Africa is an important part of the global music market and that it has been underserved over the years – a situation that all of us at Downtown want to see ameliorated.”

Alexander has been steering Sheer for 25 years, growing the operation to become the largest publisher on the continent. “In the short term, I will need to find a capable set of hands that can ensure that Sheer Publishing Africa continues to service its current clients while also growing its business and becoming more aligned with the Downtown music services business. That also means there is an upcoming opportunity in business development for Downtown’s label services,” he added.

Sparkler said. “David’s deep expertise building the largest independent music publisher on the African continent, his knowledge of the global music industry, and passion for supporting creators makes him ideally suited to lead our new markets strategy. The added partnership and support from Heli, with his impressive track record growing international operations in Latin America and India, is an ideal complement.”

Apart from leading Sheer, Alexander serves on the Southern African Music Rights Organisation board and is the chairperson of the Music Publishers Association of South Africa, among other affiliations.

Under Del Moral, CD Baby’s international operations have expanded to include India, South Africa and Latin America, where it represents nearly 200 000 Latin artists. Del Moral was named on Billboard’s Latin Power Players List in October 2020.

The Downtown announcement follows the company’s strategic move to focus exclusively on services and the realignment of its portfolio of distribution, rights management and promotional divisions. Downtown currently manages about 23 million music assets on behalf of more than 1 million creators and 2 500 enterprise clients, making it the biggest pure-play service provider in the global music industry.